DECEMDEK MEETING. 213 



Prof. Beal. — Could we not liave tin painted white? 



Mr. Chilson. — A matter of the must inijiortance to us in making a selection 

 of material for plates is the fact that we arc not permanently located, and we 

 must have something that' can 1)0 easily boxed up and transported every 

 alternate year from one part of the State to another with no danger from 

 breakage. 



Mr. Fuller, Grand Eapids. — I should suppose that enameled sheet-iron ware 

 that is so popular nowadays would come witiiin the means of this society and 

 meet the purposes of exhil)ition and transportation, nicely. I suggest that the 

 committee in charge of this matter investigate in this direction. 



The whole matter was referred to the executive committee for final decision, 

 and the next item on the programme was called for, — an essay by Mr. Edward 

 Bradfield, of Ada. Topic, 



MY FAILUKES IN GRAPE GROWING. 



To tliG President and menibers of the State Pomological Society : 



Previous to the last meeting of the Society, your Secretary requested me to 

 write a paper on my failures and mistakes in grape growing. I have done so 

 now, and the most interesting feature to you will be its sliortness. 



My first failure was trying to grow three or four of the tlien best varieties of 

 American grapes on Clinton vines. About twelve years ago I paid a nursery- 

 man in Kent county eight dollars for one dozen grape vines. The proprietor 

 dug them up and labelled them in my presence, — three Delawares, three Dianas, 

 three Concords, and three Clintons. They were carefully planted in a trench 

 that had been excavated four feet dee]) and three feet wide, and were trained 

 on a trellis on the southeast side of my house, yet with all this care not one of 

 these vines could be induced to bear any but Clinton grapes, or, what this con- 

 scientious man called them afterward, "Blue Delawares." He has since '^eft 

 this country, for his country's good." 



The following year the foundation was laid for a worse failure, when I paid 

 an honest tree and vine peddler, living in Grand Rapids, ten dollars for one 

 dozen grape vines, four were to be Delaware, four Diana, and four Concord, 

 all warranted true to name, but when these vines fruited nine proved to be 

 Clinton and three Catawba, the latter, for my locality, being worse than Clin- 

 ton. A sufficient recommendation for this honest tree peddler is that he took 

 up in sight of my house several hundred apple trees, stacked them, not verti- 

 cally, with their roots on the ground, but liorizontally like cord wood, left 

 them thus exposed to the sun and drying wind of April five or six days, then 

 returned, packed them in boxes with wet straw, and sliip})ed them to AViscon- 

 siu. It is useless to call his name, as he is deaf to remonstrances. I think it 

 would not be so easy in this eighth year of the Pomological Society for any two 

 gentlemen to palm off on any member Delaware grape vines bearing blue 

 grapes. 



My first mistake on a larger scale was planting too many varieties, some forty 

 or fifty, instead of confining myself, as 1 should have done, to ten or fifteen, 

 at most. 



The next was growing and laying down two opposite arms where rows ran up 

 and down hill, as the ascending arm robbed tlie descending one of a portion 

 of its sap, thus throwing the vine out of balance. Another defect in this sys- 



